Monson police charge couple for failing to get a 12-year-old boy medical attention after he was accidentally lit on fire

PALMER - A Three Rivers man and Monson woman will be arraigned on Nov. 2 on a charge of reckless endangerment of a child in Palmer District Court after a 12-year-old Monson boy was accidentally lit on fire and police said they failed to get him treatment.

Monson Police Chief Stephen Kozloski Jr. said the 12-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy were playing with a lighter and aerosol can when the accident happened at 372 Main St. in Monson in the early morning hours of Sept. 18. The younger boy had put nail polish remover on his shirt, which ignited, Kozloski said.

Kozloski said instead of calling for an ambulance for the burned boy, Brittany A. Boynton, 18, who lives at the address, and Robert G. Faulkner, 23, of 2014 Overlook Drive, Three Rivers, threw a towel on him and then dropped him off at home.

He said the boy's chest, neck and facial area were burned and he ended up being hospitalized at Wing Memorial Hospital in Palmer. He was then transferred to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield for second-degree burns, according to the court file.

The incident was reported just before 2:30 a.m. by the victim's parents, he said.